This I Believe

I believe that love is an important part of a successful marriage because without love, I believe there can be no commitment or security. Without a loving marriage it is hard to teach your children how to be loving individuals and show them the love they need to survive. As humans we are a social species and we long to be loved and accepted.

With the divorce rate at an all time high, it’s easy to be discouraged. Most young Americans don’t know how to make a successful marriage. They can’t look at their parent’s relationship because most often their parents are divorced. When you ask someone who has been divorced what happened, a lot of times you will hear that the love just died. Most couples, with having a dual-career family, don’t have the time to attend marriage counseling. What they don’t understand is that there are different stages to a marriage. It’s not always romantic and intimate. It’s more of a lasting friendship.

According to The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love written by Stephanie Coontz, for most of history it was inconceivable that people would marry for love. Marriage was more of a way to reproduce, and the partner was chosen by the parents. It was considered a bonus if you fell in love with your partner after years of marriage, but wasn’t the main reason for the marriage. Actually, placing love at the center of marriage was frowned upon by many cultures. Love was more of a word to describe your feelings for your family and God, or your King if you lived in a country that was ruled by a monarchy, not for your marriage partner.

I believe that love is an important part of marriage. I’ve dated guys before who were more of a friend than a potential boyfriend. Reason being, I didn’t love them. After falling in love for the first time, I realized that love was a very important part of an intimate relationship. I feel that you can’t have an intimate relationship without being in love with your partner. When I’m in love, I want to share with and take care of my partner. I want to be committed to them and I want to make a future with them. I believe that love is one of the most important parts of an intimate marriage.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.